Reflect

Much like a musical instrument, our hearts have the capacity to form multiple notes at once. These notes beautify, contradict, and ultimately complete each other, creating the music of our individual lives. While it’s tempting to think of our emotions on a continuum from negative to positive, they’re more like a symphony that can move from brooding to elated, from discordant to melodic, all within a single piece of music. Imagine, for a moment, that our emotions work in the same way: our sorrow amplifying our joy, or our joy providing a quiet but guiding throughline amidst grief. The extent of our ability to experience — or even just remember — such emotions simultaneously is the extent of our full aliveness and connection to one another. The poet Ross Gay puts it this way: “What if joy is not only entangled with pain, or suffering, or sorrow, but is also what emerges from how we care for each other through those things?” It’s the mix of these emotional notes that is always more authentic and memorable than the single note.